The invention relates to the arrangement of an inflatable head protection system in a motor vehicle, having an air bag which is provided at least partly along a member or a column of the vehicle body and, in the non-inflated condition, follows its course. Only in the manner of an example, reference is made to International Patent Document WO 94/19215 with respect to the known state of the art.
An inflatable head protection system offers protection to the occupants of the motor vehicle if the air bag is in fact inflated or has been inflated. However, cases are also conceivable in which a vehicle occupant strikes, particularly with his head, against a vehicle body column or a member, particularly a roof member, without the occurrence of a previous activating of the inflatable head protection system. These types of cases must also be covered not only while taking into account legally stipulated static head impact tests. It is basically known that the requirements of these head impact tests can be met by energy-absorbing pads--as a rule, these are plastic material foam systems--in the area of the roof pillars and of the upper side frame of a normal passenger car. If now these two known systems, specifically energy-absorbing pads, on the one hand, and an inflatable air bag, on the other hand, were simply combined with one another, a relatively large amount of space would be required for this purpose. As a result, the so-called comfort measurements, that is, the inside dimensions of the motor vehicle/passenger car would be limited considerably.
It is therefore an object of the invention to provide remedial measures for solving the described problems.